the whiskey days

your father loved his
Canadian club whiskey. did
your mother drive
him to drink, perhaps.
but it was a short drive.
we're they bad for each other.
without a doubt.
she could throw a plate
with the best of them
if there was lipstick on his
cheek.
what was love
to a telephone operator
in Philadelphia
barely out of school
and a sailor on shore
leave trying to call home
to Boston.
it was short lived.
seven kids
in twelve years, two
that didn't make it which
would have made nine.
was it love, true love,
forever and ever love,
probably not.
I never saw the tattoo
with her name in the inked heart,
they both tried and failed,
thus the whiskey, the
Canadian club.